Hands-on with the Canon EOS RP

@Kandid
call is as you like, but Canon has no answer for the the A9 and the A7RIII. No the 1DXII is not even close in performance to the A9 and the 5DIV does not compete with the A7RIII.
I have been a Canon user since the film era, and I still am. I mean, I still have lots of Canon glass on my shelves waiting for a camera worthwhile attaching to it.

It’s the laughable hyperbole that I love - ‘no answer’, ‘not even close’, ‘does not compete’. To my mind such phrases indicate trolling rather than points made seeking a serious response. I am a happy to concede these cams you mention are ‘a bit better in some ways’ but they will change nobody’s life nor make your photographs any better......grow up!

@Kandid
Have you looked at the capabilities of the new AF firmware for the A9? The 1DXII tracking is not as good as the D5, this is well known. The new AI driven real time tracking for the A9 has been already deemed superior that Nikon 3D tracking which makes it vastly superior to the 1DXII. If you add incredible eye af, 92% coverage, no blackout, 20fps with electronic shutter, IBIS, light and small with tilt screen, that would be correct, the 1DXII is a very good camera, but not answer for the A9.
Canon has (as you seem to own) the 5DS and the 5DIV. The A7RIII combines the performance of the two and beats them both in their specialties with the 5DS having a slight resolution advantage. So, no sorry, as much as Canon cameras are indeed very good cameras, and they are part of a great ecosystem, they are about one generation behind if not more Sony cameras. As a fact I moved from Canon Pro bodies to Sony bodies and my photography has gained substantially.

That's why Canon and Nikon still have DSLR's at $500. with 2 lenses.

You get the most out of the sensor with a 100$ 50mm f/1.8.

@Ebrahim Saadawi
1) that is a pretty limiting option isn't it? Spend $1,300 to shoot only with one prime lens?
2) the nifty fifty is decent only in the centre. Forget composition. I only used twice and it wracked my images. I would not recommend.

Limiting? Not at all. It is liberating. You don't have to use it wide open all the time. Unlike when you pay $2299 for the RF50F1.2L. Because babies start crying when you try to stop that thing down. It is almost a crime :).
The EF40F2.8STM is a fantastic FF lens too. Just like the EF85F1.8USM or the EF100F2USM or the EF35F2ISUSM, etc.

Dynamic range isn't image quality.
FF advantage is its 2.35 times higher light gathering ability due to larger sensor area. But, for you people, who don't know any physics, it must be a mystery. Which is pathetic.
"Actually you cannot shoot wide open at all with this lens" - BS! Of course you can.
FF 40F2.8 is equivalent to 26F1.8 on your precious a6400. And the 50F1.8 on FF is like 33F1.2 on your A6400. Now tell me how much would those two cost you?
I'm not going to buy this new old sensor camera. But it does produce higher quality images than crop.

Not just the RP. The R and M50 suffer the same problem. And if you are an average consumer user you are going to need the camera switched on and the led panel lit up to play around with settings, focusing, and a lot of re-takes. So consumer or pro, you need a bigger battery!

"consumer camera"
A $1,300 US is a consumer camera. With no lens.
In a market that is shrinking insanely and "consumers" are shooting with smartphones.

@YuryVilin
me? no affording it? you might want to check out my profile....
I am just saying that it is too much money for the target audience, especially when you see the target audience currently shrinking. Who appreciates FF either wants more (and will likely fork out a few extra hundreds for it) or wants bare minimum, and there are cheaper options for that (i.e. A7). No meat no fish at this price point. If it was priced at $998... well that would be different.

Not a great idea if you use more than one camera -they should have stuck with the LP-E6N.

I just prefer compatibility -I can use two cameras or more with one bag.

You don't seem to understand the advantages of compatible components. In engineering design we always strive for compatibility -it just saves money, time, and hassles.

@YuryVilin
"I do not own a fraction of what you have listed, but I have no issues to pay for any of offered RP bundles"
well if you have the money to shell for an RP bundle, it seems to me a pretty poor choice to invest money. What I am saying that in order to make a splash the RP should cost no more than $998 or $1,300 with a decent kit lens. At this price point the sluggish performance makes, in my opinion, a slew of crop cameras more appealing or just invest on a marginally more expensive FF camera.

I carry both 5DII and 7DII with glass for different purposes, but long lenses for the 7DII and both can give me 500+ shots and both use the same batteries. This WORKS. I have a 50M for travelling, which I do a lot for business, which is fine for the job, but the battery sucks, and I always have to have to carry more than one spare battery. I'd like a full-frame mirrorless (Canon) to replace the M50 for both travel and landscape, but neither the R nor the RP fit the bill.

@lawny13
What's so great about mounting huge F2.8 zooms on a tiny little RP, which requires a bottom extender and full pocket of spare batteries?
And why the bottom extender? Why not an L-bracket with Arca-Swiss instead? At least it would add some value.

Yes the camera may have been in the planning but the price looks very un-Canon like.

$1300 and the best out of camera images I’ve seen in years.
That is something to praise.

@Zed Man

"the best out of camera images I’ve seen in years."

Did you just have Lasik or something? Same sensor as the 6D II, which was considered meh. It'll have the same JPG processing as in the EOS R, which is probably the same as in the 5D IV and 6D II.

I know it is subjective but the samples look, well, gorgeous.
They even look better than what I expect from Nikon and way better than anything from Sony. My A7Rii was a bit finicky with colors.

Anyway, good job DPR!

Canon cameras are so bad that most National Geographic photographers and pros use them. The Canon 5MII is still being used be pros. Nikon comes in second. The quality of the pudding is in the tasting. -- English proverb.

@MyReality - Times change. There was a time when film shooters argued: "Film cameras are so bad that most National Geographic photographers and pros use them." Well, times changed. The error of people like yourself is the assumption that nothing ever changes, everything stays the same forever. For example, for many decades (1960s through to the mid 1990s), Nikon was the dominant camera brand overwhelmingly used by pros. Nikon users assumed that it would stay like that. And they thought it was inconceivable that Canon would ever overtake Nikon. They dismissed Canon as the "copier company." But they were obviously quite wrong. Arrogantly wrong, just like you are being. The Canon EOS system went from having ZERO market share when it was introduced in 1987 to overtaking Nikon by the mid 1990s. Companies rise and fall. Only a fool assumes that things don't change.

@T3 - I never said that times do not change. I simply implied that some pros still use older cameras and now I will add that some pros sometimes shoot with film if they are looking for a certain "look" or that is what the publication or client wants.

One such photographer is David Doubilet. He has shot some magazine covers with Velvia and a Contax T2 camera.

T3, times change.
There was a time when Sony was th fastest growing ILC manufacturer. That was 2009. Then they failed at SLTs, the stupidest move by any Camera company, and now have a smaller global market share and sell a lot less cameras.
Canon instead has grown and sells 1 of every 2 ILCs globally.
Times change and Sony sales are trending downward.
Look at the last few years in Japan Sony is getting killed in mirrorless. They are a distant 3rd vs. Canon and M43. Both sell 50% more mirrorless cameras than Sony.
Pretty soon Sony have the sales of Leica.

@Zed Man - Desperate, sad, pathetic trolls change their names too! Hahahaha

@T3 - If we are now keeping the subject to just new camera sales, that makes things a lot easier. The last global market sales data I saw is: Canon 49%, Nikon 23%, Sony 13%, Fuji 7%, Olympus 4% and 4% everyone else.
If we are talking about non-cellphone cameras, then the DSLR still rules.

@MyReality - But look at where the bulk of those DSLR sales are going: to low-margin, low-profit DSLRs. That might have been fine when sales volume was higher, but sales volume is a fraction of what it used to be.

Read this article:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/how-to-save-dslr-after-mirrorless-wins/

Look at the graph of the average unit price for DSLRs vs mirrorless sales. In the US, average unit price of a MILC sale was $671.62 while it was only $376.83 for DSLRs because people are only buying cheapo, bargain-basement DSLRs. Each MILC sale brings in twice the $! MILC is definitely more profitable. That's why market share based just on unit volume is very misleading. For example, Apple has small smartphone market share yet rakes in most of the industry's smartphone profits:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/17/apple-grabs-86-of-smartphone-profits-globally-iphone-x-alone-seizes-35
But if all you look at was market share, you'd think that Apple was doing terribly!

Last year DSLRs still out sold mirrorless by about 50%.

Two things are certain, 1) DSLRs still rule, and 2) Sony fans when facing facts - cry, throw tantrums and call people names. (T3 proves this)

In the US where DSLR sales are still very strong, the best selling Sony cameras consistently rank much lower than #200 in “Camera and Photo” on Amazon, while a dozen Canons rank higher.
In Japan where mirrorless now rules, Sony has fallen to a distant 3rd place.

As for off topic smartphones, Samsung and Apple dominate Sony. Sony tried to go upscale and got crushed. Another example of Sony failing.

@Zed Man - How many times have you changed your name? LOL. You are a troll and a cockroach who never dies. But both are deplorable. Sad and pathetic.

@MyReality - "In the future, MLC may become the majority or may not. It depends if there is advancement is DSLR design."

The only DSLRs that are still selling are low-end bargain-basement DSLRs. Just look at the average selling price of DSLRs. There is no need for development in that low-end segment because those buyers just want a cheap price, not new technological or performance developments.

The mid/upper-end DSLR market, on the other hand, has cratered. Why? Because those users are more sophisticated and they can see that all the technological/performance developments are happening in mirrorless. They can see that things are shifting towards mirrorless. So that is where most of these buyers are going. Why would manufacturers continue to pour development dollars into the DSLR segment if more and more consumers (especially mid/upper-range consumers) are shifting to mirrorless? It makes no business sense for them to do so. All the emphasis (and money) is now on mirrorless.

Do you remember the last Olympic Summer Games at Rio in 2016? Take a look here:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/getty-images-camera-lenses-equipment-insane/
and for Tokyo in 2020, take a look here:
https://tokyo2020.org/en/organising-committee/marketing/sponsors/canon.html
https://global.canon/en/news/2015/feb18e2.html

@Mlumiere - Does it mean that they are going to give cameras and lenses to all the working photographers at the Olympics? Nope. It just means they are contributing sponsorship money and service support. Photographers will still be using their own equipment. And at the end of the day, photographers want all the performance edge they can get. That means cameras like the Sony A9 with its superior AF performance, shooting speed, and fast telephotos with direct linear drive motors which can keep up with Sony's 20fps shooting speed. Right now, the best Canon can manage is 5fps shooting speed. Woohoo! Plus, working pros don't want to bet their careers on newly introduced gear. The Tokyo Olympics are next year! That's why Sony introduced their A9 in 2017: to give it plenty of time to be tested and vetted before the Olympics in 2020.

Canon is no longer the end all and be all of high performance camera gear. Time for you to realize that, as many of us are. If anything, Canon has fallen behind.

I agree, 20 images per second of blurry images is amazing !

Olympics pro sports photographers are going to be using whimpy not-even-rain-sealed A9s with quarter-to-half battery life to their DSLRs with a single super tele lens option, and leave their 1DXIIs with water/shock proofing, humongous batteries, twice as much screens and buttons, a usable grip to hold the damn thing, and 200, 300, 400, 600, 800, 1200 lens options?

Care to bet me 1 thousand USD in front of all those good folks if we'll see more than 1 or 2% A9s in the olympics? I'd go higher if you want, to a hundred grand, no problem :)

Remember that pros still use rain jackets on their uber pro DSLR cameras/lenses. Weather sealing doesn't mean weather proof, as I've personally found out.

@Ebrahim Saadawi
the A9 with battery pack easily matches the capacity of the 1DXII.
Also, 1DX might be built like a tank but still has fragile stuff inside (i.e.pentaprism). Furthermore I shot over 1M images with my A9 and fear no failure, while my 1DX had a shutter replacement at 400K

@Mlumiere
"I agree, 20 images per second of blurry images is amazing !"
I cannot think of a better way to make a fool out of yourself. You obviously are completely clueless of how far behind Canon is to the A9 AF. Not even the Nikon D5 matches the A9 in shear performance, never mind any Canon.

That's what I'm holding out for.......is the PRO R model. Assuming it will likely have a 5.6mp 120fps viewfinder with next to no blackout, a 2.1mp LCD, at least 8fps with focus and exposure, a long life larger battery, perhaps a 30mp low noise sensor etc. I figured they might at least announce it by the end of 2019. We'll see

I think Tokio 2020 will still be dominated by DSLRs. I suspect these photographers are a conservative bunch of folks. Never change a running system...

2024 is probably more interesting, or the 2022 winter games in Beijing.

@mick232
probably, but I would not underestimate the fact that there is a huge drive to get the best possible shots, and unless Canon and Nikon pull off a game changer flagship they will be left in the dust by Sony as the A9, especially with the new AF firmware and the framerate is already a generation ahead to the 1DXII and D5 and there will be an A9II for the Olympic games.

Hilarious Mirrorless fanboys , thank’s for the laugh.

@Yxa - Sorry, buddy, but the future is mirrorless. That's where every camera manufacturer is now going, with the exception of Pentax. Any money that might have gone into further development of DSLRs is now being poured into mirrorless. DSLRs will still exist, but they'll basically go into a state of suspended animation: frozen in time with little to no further development in them, while mirrorless will be rocketing ahead in development and growth. You can be in denial all you want, but that's just reality. DSLRs had their run. It was a good run. But everything is shifting to mirrorless. And one by one, users are doing the same.

It's amazing a camera launch four years ago is still so much more competitive to a camera released in 2019 and can still be bought new for less money. Is this representative of Canon's technology, being four years behind it's competitor?

No, RP does not have better build quality. And it has the same battery life. But the A7II is $300 cheaper, and it has IBIS! I would much rather have the camera that offers IBIS. On top of that, Sony lens selection is still better, and there's tons of 3rd party lens support thanks to the fact that Sony shares its lens spec with 3rd parties, which Canon has said they will not do.

Does your A7 focus at -5 EV? Does it have selectable 4500+ AF points with touch & drag? Does it have video AF at all, not to mention with Eye AF? Does it do 14bit uncompressed raw even in servo mode? Does it have a comfortable grip with a native extension? Does it have a 1m+ pixel LCD touchscreen? Does it articulate in any direction? Does it have a UHS-II Slot? Does it have a snappy easy-to-navigate menu system for anyone to pick-up and shoot? Does it do beautiful JPEGs in full auto and video that doesn't need any grading or even focusing? Does it have access to the 50/1.2RF? 28-70? 85DF? Super compact 70-200/2.8? The control ring? Is it 1299$ with a 100$ adapter for native EF compatibility AND an 80$ grip? (So actual 1120$ price). Does it even do 4K at all? Actually does it do 1080p without unusable aliasing & moire?

The RP is SO MUCH more modern and a whole different type of camera compared to an A7II, and yes the A7II has some advantages

Do you have 1st hand experience with the RP? Just curious.

Phones have 90+% of the camera market. And for the most part, todays phones produce technically better photos than 35mm film ever did. As Canon said, the 'camera' market is dying.

@ethanp99 then how did Canon make a pancake 22mm f2 for the M series if mirrorless can't be pancakes? Fuji 27mm f2.8 ?

I would suggest more education to improve your guesswork.

Canon doesn't make total garbage, they just don't. If you can't get beautiful images with this camera you are in wrong profession or hobby. I'm not so sure it will 'fly off the shelves' however as Canon is seen less and less as a leader today, unlike say 2002 to 2011 when they were leading sensor/tech development of the dslr.

The only problem is... the masses aren't buying entry-level interchangeable-lens cameras anymore, mirror or no mirror.

The FF camera for the masses already exists. It's the A7II which is currently $1198 with native kit lens (no adapter needed) and IBIS. And it's a perfect upgrade for Sony APS-C users since it uses the same Sony E-mount. It's even a good upgrade for Canon DSLR users as well, since there are great EF-to-E adapters available. I use the Sigma MC-11 adapter for my Canon EF lenses and am very happy. I get IBIS with all my non-stabilized Canon EF glass, which is definitely more than you can say for the EOS R or RP. The R and RP are only good for Canonites who enjoy paying more for less, which is the Canon way.

I'm much more concern with Canon sales of the EOS R. This surprising release of the RP is undercutting the EOS R by a lot and way too early in the game.